Just How Communist Is China?

“They sure buy a lot of cars for a society built on collective ownership.” Slate says that while China’s political party is highly centralized, most Maoist concepts have been abandoned. “The irony is that the Communist leadership structure is geared toward capitalist ends. For example, regional leaders are evaluated every year based on economic growth in their domains. That gives them incentives to drive innovation however possible—sometimes by fostering healthy competition among companies and other times by encouraging a monopoly. The system inevitably produces high levels of corruption, as local officials collect kickbacks from the companies they help.”